back pain on long rides

Three days a week I compute right at 200 miles in 3 separate legs. I find that my middle back tends to start cramping after about 45 minutes. Not matter how I position myself, it still is annoying.

I removed my driver's butt rest since i need the extra leg room

Any suggestions?

I used to have back problems also. I ordered and installed a 3 brothers backrest. I no longer have back pain from riding. Look for it on ebay. It took them 3 weeks to ship it, and it was worth every penny.

RobinC wrote:

Three days a week I compute right at 200 miles in 3 separate legs. I find that my middle back tends to start cramping after about 45 minutes. Not matter how I position myself, it still is annoying.

I removed my driver's butt rest since i need the extra leg room

My first reaction was also a backrest would greatly help.
You could either try the inexpensive Leroy Beal modification ( http://www.leroybeal.net/motorcycles/silverwing/articles/backrest/backrest.html ), other more expensive of the raised butt-rest variations or the top of the line Utopia backrest ( http://www.utpr.com/silverwingnew.html ).

When you removed the butt-rest, what did you do with the plastic extrusions for the butt-rest ... did you leave them or remove them?

What is the position of elbows while riding??

Robin, I did the same thing, removed the backrest and the plastic pieces that are a part of their mountings for the additional legroom. And I also feel like I need a little support right at the top of the rise of the rider's portion of the seat, just about where the top of the molded plastic mountings were located. Something about an inch thick of firm foam but that doesn't go down that rise very far. I'm thinking a local upholsterer could make something very inexpensively. Skiwoods, I'm not sure but would backrests just put you in the same position(too far forward)as the stock butrest?

Yeah, after looking at the Beal mod it looks like the backrest would be in the same position as the stock buttrest.

Honda ... Bill, did you have a post somewhere here about a sheepskin pad from Alaska or somewhere? I want to order one, but can't find the link. I have the threebrothers backrest. Can I keep that with the sheepskin for padding when riding alone. I still will remove it completely when riding two up. Thanks.
Gary

I just noticed that I missed one of the brothers... it is 4brothers. Sorry about that. Too many grandbabies here today.

Jay600 wrote:

Yeah, after looking at the Beal mod it looks like the backrest would be in the same position as the stock buttrest.

The Beal butt-rest mod requires that you bend the metal at a "certain" angle. If you increase or decrease the angle of the bend that will effect the raised position of the butt-rest ... so you could make it further back with an angle change.

With the Utopia backrest, there is a thumb screw at the base of the backrest adjusts the forward/back movement of the backrest.

Opalsboy wrote:

did you have a post somewhere here about a sheepskin pad from Alaska or somewhere? I want to order one, but can't find the link.

Discount code: deadsheep

With buttrest in place - Large

http://www.alaskaleatheronline.com/servlet/the-7/Large-Buttpad-Deluxe/Detail

Without buttrest - X-Large (or a raised butt-rest)

http://www.alaskaleatheronline.com/servlet/the-8/Sheepskin-Motorcycle-Seat-Cover%2C/Detail

Opalsboy wrote:

Can I keep
that with the sheepskin for padding when riding alone. I still will
remove it completely when riding two up.

The above is for the Driver, there is no need to remove with a passenger

If you want a passenger sheepskin (which I do) - you would purchase another Larger and invert the direction on the seat.

I used to have back pain on longer rides also. I've made the leroybeal mod, and I find it a nice change, but what really helped me was rotating the handlebars upward about an inch or two - I should have actually measured how far I rotated them, but I didn't.

This can be done pretty simply if you think you'd like to try it. You just remove the plastic handlebar covers - be careful when doing this, so you don't break off any of the "clips" that hold the pieces together. Then you loosen the four bolts that hold the handle bars in place (I think it's four), and re-position the bars to where you want them, and tighten up the bolts again.

The way I discovered that this might help was that, while riding, I put my arms about where I thought I'd really like them to be - for me that was about an inch or two higher, and an inch or two further back. Of course, the "further back" part can't be changed, but the "higher" part can be approximated with the upward rotation. Then a fellow on the forum told me how to rotate the bars upward. I have to say that the "slight" upward rotation made a pretty remarkable difference. Haven't experienced the back pain since. It's been about a year now.

matthew wrote:

I used to have back pain on longer rides also. I've made the leroybeal mod, and I find it a nice change, but what really helped me was rotating the handlebars upward about an inch or two - I should have actually measured how far I rotated them, but I didn't.

Which hand grips do you have??

You could measure the height from the ground to the outside base of the handlebar .. that would allow others to closely approximate your rotation.

Honda_silver wrote: When you removed the butt-rest, what did you do
with the plastic extrusions for the butt-rest ... did you leave them or
remove them?

I left the plastic pieces on since I was afraid if I removed them, the slot through the vinyl may snag or expand.

I have not checked my elbow position. What is the preferred position?

I did order an Alaskan leather seat pad but more for the coolness and to prevent chafing during hot weather.

Thanks to all of you for your replies and suggestions. That is what makes this a great forum. I had previously been a member of a Harley forum, but posted only ONCE. They tended to make people feel like idiots for daring to ask questions or it ended up in a pissing contest between a few select members who seemed to always be looking for something to disagree on.

One comment - if you make the Leroy Beal mod, or for that matter the 4 brothers mod, it is too uncomfortable for the passenger. If you never ride with a passenger, either of those mods are fine.

Here is a post I made about my homemade backrest. It definitely made long trips possible for me.

http://silverwing600.forumotion.com/silver-wing-topics-f3/homemade-backrest-t547.htm

There is a link in that post to a pdf file write-up with pics of my backrest mod that you can download from the 4shared site.

If you don't want to download the write-up, you can view pics sans write-up here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/twistngo/SilverwingBackRest#

I got the medium cruiser butt pad (Alaska Leather). It fits fine. I have the butt rest removed. I can see that with the Utopia backrest you would want the larger pad. But with the Leroy Beal brackets (which I used, then added an old office chair seat back to them) the medium butt pad fit.

For the passenger, I got the Pillion type 5 butt pad. Works fine for me....er....for my wife.

You can see how the butt pads fit my scoot in this pic:

http://picasaweb.google.com/twistngo/SilverwingBackRest#5343700518522688018

Bill, good idea to take a measurement, so here it is:

with the caveat that the dirt ground my swing sits on is not 100% exactly level, and with the swing on its center stand and the handlebars straight on, and now with the darkside tire on the rear- which adds how much height? - I get a measurement of right about 42 1/2 inches on either side, to the center of the stock bar end weight screw.

Don't know if this will be meaningful in terms of figuring how much I rotated the handlebars upward or not, but it should give some idea.

Also, there's only so far you can rotate them upward before the covers won't go back on. Obviously I didn't go that far, since the covers did go back on.

matthew wrote:

with the swing on its center stand and the handlebars straight on, and now with the darkside tire on the rear- which adds how much height?

With the SWing on the center stand, if the front wheel was securely touching ground ... then the darkside tire did not add any height. The SWing swingarm allows the darkside tire swing down to touch the ground from gravity without raising the height of the SWing.

Very smart putting it on the center stand, otherwise the handlebar measurement could have skewed by the darkside tire.

I posted a "pictorial" on how I adjusted my handlebars a couple of months ago. I adjusted them all the way down so it would bring the grips closer to me. But I also noticed that I would be a pain in my back, between my shoulder blades. So today I did what Matthew did, and adjusted them all the way up. This way I'm not reaching down but my arms are up higher and it seemed much more comfortable. Here is the file to adjust the handlebars:

http://www.4shared.com/get/84498740/444666da/Handle_Bar_Adjustment_for_the_Silver_Wing.html